The University of Michigan men's tennis team, listed 28th nationally, opens the 2011 Big Ten Tournament on Friday (April 29) with a quarterfinals match against No. 18 Illinois in Madison, Wis. The match will begin at 10 a.m. at the Nielsen Tennis Center.

The Second Season Begins
The Wolverines finished the regular season with a 13-9 (6-4 Big Ten) record, finishing fifth in the conference. By virtue of its finish, they earned a first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament this week.

The next step for Michigan is finding where it will play for NCAA Regionals. The NCAA Selection Show will take place on Tuesday, May 3, at 5:30 p.m. and can be seen live on NCAA.com. The top 16 teams in the nation will serve as host sites for the first and second rounds, which run from May 13-15. Each regional serves as a four-team mini tournament, with the winner going to the NCAA Team Championships, to be held from May 19-24 in Palo Alto, Calif. The NCAA Individual Championships, featuring 64 singles players and 64 doubles teams, run from May 25-30, also in Palo Alto.

Last Time Out
Michigan handed Northwestern a 5-2 defeat last Saturday (April 23) in the regular-season finale in Evanston, Ill. After dropping the doubles point, the Wolverines won five of six singles matches to defeat the Wildcats.

Dual-Match Format
This weekend's matches will be a contest for the best-of-seven team points. The dual will begin with three doubles matches consisting of eight-game pro sets. The team that wins two of these three matches will enter the singles competition with one of seven points. After a brief intermission, six singles matches will be played. Each singles match will be the best of three tie-break sets and worth one point towards the team competition.

In all postseason dual matches, the first team that reaches four points wins. All other matches in progress when the match point is clinched will be abandoned.

The Lineup
Here is Michigan's projected lineup, based on the last match vs. Northwestern:

Awards Winners
Following the match on April 17 against Iowa, Michigan held its postseason banquet at the U-M Golf Course, and three awards were handed out. Jason Jungwas the recipient of the Leadership Award, Evan Kingwas named the team's Most Improved Player and Duncan Muil was named the inaugural recipient of the Mike DePietro Award for Exemplary Character and Loyalty. The team will vote on the Most Valuable Player at the conclusion of the season.

The Big Ten will announce its award winners on Thursday (April 28) in Madison. Evan Kingis up for Big Ten Player of the Year, and he, Jason Jung, and Shaun Bernsteinare all nominated for All-Big Ten honors.

King's CourtEvan Kinghas had a spectacular sophomore season, going 26-8 in singles this season, with an 19-3 mark in dual matches. He is also 10-5 against ranked opponents.

King joins some elite company, as only four men in program history since 1970 have had as many wins at the top spot in dual matches -- Ed Nagel (45-9 in 1987), Michael Leach (24-7 in 1982; won NCAA singles championship), Jeff Etterbeek (19-6 in 1977, 18-5 in 1976) and Victor Amaya (20-2 in 1973).

Jung Reaches Milestones
After beating the nation's third-ranked player on April 10 at Ohio State,Jason Jungnow has at least 80 career wins in both singles and doubles. He currently has a 25-10 singles record, the best mark of his career (he won 18, 19 and 21 singles matches in each of the past three years, respectively).

Jung is also fourth on Michigan's all-time list for career doubles wins, three away from tying the record (90).

Struggles in Doubles
Michigan is 6-16 in winning the doubles point this season. Despite its struggles, the Wolverines are 5-1 when they win the point and 8-8 when they lose the point.

The Wolverines have used 19 different doubles teams this season.

Scouting The CompetitionIllinois -- The Fighting Illini (15-9, 7-3 Big Ten) enter the Big Ten Tournament after finishing fourth in the conference. Illinois enters the tournament on a high note, having defeated Wisconsin, 7-0, last Sunday (April 24) in Champaign. The Fighting Illini are ranked No. 18 in the ITA.

Michigan and Illinois last met on April 16 in Ann Arbor, with Illinois escaping with a 5-2 victory. Evan Kingdefeated then-No. 11 Dennis Nevolo, 6-2, 6-1, and Jason Jungdefeated Roy Kalmanovich, 6-3, 6-3, for the Wolverines' only two points of the contest. The Wolverines actually led Illinois 2-1 and had match points on two different courts, but the Fighting Illini brushed back Michigan's advance.

The match with Illinois is the 96th all-time meeting between the two schools, with Michigan holding a 62-31-2 (.645) record. Michigan has beaten Illinois twice in the last 20 meetings, dating back to the 1997 season.

TEAM NOTES

U-M in the National Rankings
The Wolverines are ranked No. 28 in the most-recent ITA poll, released on April 26.

Evan Kingcontinues to be ranked at No. 21 in singles, with Jason Jungmoving up two additional spots to No. 48. The two are ranked No. 29 in doubles, despite not playing together since April 10 at Ohio State.

Challenging Schedule
The Wolverines have only played three teams all season that were unranked at the time of the match, and have faced 10 top-25 teams this season, going an even 5-5 in those contests.

Wins

Losses

No. 25 Virginia Tech (1/29)

No. 5 Texas (1/22)

No. 22 Wake Forest (2/5)

No. 14 Duke (1/29)

No. 23 Washington (2/11)

No. 24 Minnesota (4/3)

No. 23 Notre Dame (2/19)

No. 3 Ohio State (4/10)

No. 6 Duke (2/26)

No. 17 Illinois (4/16)

Michigan at the Varsity Tennis Center
The Wolverines have been tough to beat at the Varsity Tennis Center since the facility opened in 1997. Michigan is 58-19 (.753) since the 2005 season and is 118-39 (.751) overall at the complex.

Michigan went 5-5 at the Varsity Tennis Center in 2011. Additionally, the Wolverines went the entire home slate without playing an outdoor match.

The Captain
Senior Jason Jung was voted as team captain for the 2010-11 season by his teammates. Jung enjoyed a fantastic season last year as a junior, including being named an All-Big Ten selection and qualifying for the NCAA Championships in both singles and doubles (with Evan King). Off the court, Jung was recognized as the national and Midwest regional winner of the ITA Arthur Ashe Jr. Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship and was the Big Ten Conference's male nominee for the NCAA Sportsmanship Award.

For his career, Jung owns an 83-62 record in singles and an 87-58 record in doubles, playing atop the lineup for most of his career. His 24 doubles wins last season were tied for seventh most all-time at Michigan, and he is fourth all-time in school history in career doubles wins.

Future Wolverines
Michigan inked two top prep players -- Alex Petrone(Staten Island, N.Y./Laurel Springs Prep) and Eli Brown(Toronto, Ontario/City Academy) -- to National Letters of Intent during the early signing period this fall. Petrone is rated as a blue-chip recruit and No. 15 nationally by the service www.tennisrecruiting.net., while Brown won the Cuba ITF singles title and Dominican Republic ITF doubles title last year as a junior.

The Wolverines added another standout last week, signing Michael Zhu (Princeton, N.J./Keystone National) to the class. He was ranked as a blue-chip recruit by www.tennisrecruiting.net and was ranked as high as No. 15 by the service.

Leader of the WolverinesBruce Berque is in his seventh season as the head coach of the University of Michigan men's tennis team. He has taken the Wolverines to five straight NCAA Championships appearances, including the Sweet 16 in 2008. Berque owns a career dual-meet record of 109-71, including a 48-22 mark in Big Ten play. In addition, the Wolverines have finished in the top half of the Big Ten in each of Berque's years at the helm, including a fifth place finish this season.

He is assisted by associate head coach Sean Maymi, who is in his fifth season.

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Yearbook & Record Book
For the second year in a row, the University of Michigan athletics department will no longer print media guides. U-M fans and media can still obtain all the information they're used to, only now it's available online. If you're looking for in-depth historical information, statistics, records, archives, etc., the Record Book is what you'll need and it was just added to MGoBlue.com. For more of a general overview of a team, the staff and student-athletes, check out the Yearbook.